Black Market Pudding by John O'Shea

Artist John O’Shea is responsible for the “Black Market Pudding” project. This piece documents the process and final result of a sausage he made by harvesting the blood from a living pig, bypassing the traditional need for slaughter.

The saying that “if people are comfortable eating meat, they should be comfortable killing animals” is an old one. This death-free method offers an alternative option for the squeamish carnivore, but is it more ethical?

It allows the predator (humans) to consume an animal whilst also being motivated to keep it alive and healthy. But is the process of keeping an animal alive for the grizzly task of harvesting its blood, just a more prolonged death? The answer remains to be seen and O’Shea himself acknowledges that “this is something I may have to help people come to terms with.’

According to O’Shea, this method ‘puts you in the position of being more of a parasite, than a traditional carnivore.” He hopes that taking animal death out of the equation and suggesting this new method will lead to further discussions of animal rights and the ethics of the meat industry.